Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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💃 Ballroom back on

Marine One, carrying President Trump, flies over construction on the new White House ballroom yesterday. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that President Trump's sprawling ballroom project can proceed for now, despite a lower court's ruling that halted the administration's plans. In a brief order, Chief Justice John Roberts paused the D.C. District Court's restrictions on construction while the court weighs the administration's request. The order didn't address the project's legality or give a timeline for when SCOTUS will weigh in, Axios' Avery Lotz and Josephine Walker write. President Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive for an event announcing the expansion of a foster care initiative in the Rose Garden of the White House on Thursday. Photo: Finn Gomez/Getty Images The big picture: The White House has pointed to the alleged plot against the White House's July UFC fight and the White House Correspondents' Dinner attack as evidence of a heightened threat environment that boosts the need for the ballroom and the renovation of a secure bunker below it. A White House official wrote in a filing sent to the Supreme Court that the project is already 65% complete and that construction of the underground facilities is nearly finished. Zoom out: The joint cost of the ballroom and underground bunker is projected to be at least $600 million, up $400 million from when the project was first announced. Keep reading.

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Hegseth Launches Twisted Attack on Free Press Over Carrier Scandal

The publisher and editor of Stars and Stripes were given the boot after an interview cautioning against censorship.

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon on Friday fired the publisher and editor of the independent military news outlet Stars and Stripes for “insubordination.”

Long-time publisher Max Lederer and Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin were given “separation notices” that allow five days to appeal the decision, CBS News reports. Reporter Lara Korte announced on social media that she had also been fired.

Korte and Slavin traced the decision back to interviews they did that aired on CBS Sunday Morning in July.

“According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line. The Pentagon’s public affairs office has charged me with insubordination,” Slavin told CBS.

“I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department’s own policies.”

“It’s a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press,” Korte wrote in a series of posts about her firing.

Although the newspaper operates within the Department of Defense, it is legally mandated by Congress to remain editorially independent.

Lederer had announced on Wednesday his intention to step down from the post he’s held since 2007, since his opinions on how to run the media organization differed in “fundamental ways” to the Pentagon’s plans for Stars and Stripes, the newspaper reported.

“I think the right step is for me to step down, get out of the way, and let different leadership step in and continue to make this, the great organization that it is, even better,” he said.

Lederer was slated to finish up his tenure on Sept. 30, but now both he and his editor-in-chief have been turfed out.

The move comes after President Donald Trump, Hegseth, and other military leaders downplayed reporting on dire conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln reported by families of service members.

Earlier this year, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted a statement about the news outlet on X.

“We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,” the statement said in part.

In the CBS Sunday Morning interview that led to Slavin’s firing, he said he did not know what the “woke distractions” Parnell was referring to were.

In an open letter published on Stars and Stripes Friday afternoon, the new military deputy to the publisher, Navy Capt. Bill Urban, said the military remained “deeply committed” to the editorial independence of the news outlet.

It is funded in part by the American taxpayer, and has a daily circulation of around 1.4 million. The staff are all employed by the Pentagon.

The Department of Defense declined to comment on the situation, but a Pentagon official did confirm the separation notices were “very real.”

Slavin and Lederer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/hegseths-twisted-attack-on-free-press-over-carrier-scandal/?

ps:What a pathetic administration! They just can't handle the truth!!!!!

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Trump’s DOJ Sets Off Alarm Bells With Election Monitoring Hire

The Florida lawyer served jail time after illegally accessing government election websites.

A lawyer who served jail time for hacking election websites appears to be working alongside the Justice Department officials tasked with monitoring elections.

David Levin was spotted with DOJ attorney William F. Mohrman outside a Minneapolis polling place during the department’s monitoring of Minnesota’s primary, according to Democracy Docket.

The sighting comes a decade after Levin was arrested for illegally accessing government election websites in Florida.

Investigators said Levin used a cyberattack in 2016 to extract usernames and passwords from the Lee County Supervisor of Elections website.

He then used Supervisor Sharon Harrington’s credentials to log in and navigate the site as an administrator. Authorities also found evidence that he separately targeted the Florida Division of Elections website.

Levin initially faced three felony charges before reaching a deal and pleading guilty to two misdemeanors. He served 20 days in jail and received two years of probation.

During the plea hearing, Levin called the event a “silly political stunt” intended to expose security weaknesses in the county elections office. He later said he had been “curious about the integrity of elections” but conceded that his approach was “one of the bigger mistakes I’ve made in my life.”

Levin became an attorney and built an online presence as Dave the Lawyer, offering right-wing political commentary and unsuccessfully running for local office in Florida.

Evidence now points to Levin having joined the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

A photo from a July 8 ceremony shows him among more than 100 new attorneys and staff sworn in by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. His Facebook profile picture also shows him standing in front of a DOJ flag.

The department has not confirmed Levin’s employment or whether he was officially serving as an election monitor in Minnesota.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-doj-sets-off-alarm-bells-with-election-monitoring-hire/?

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Trump Erupts at Republican Nemeses in Late-Night Screed

The president branded the MAGA rebels as “LOSERS” in a bizarre rampage.

President Donald Trump was up all night thinking about his ex-MAGA foes.

Trump, 80, raged against Tucker Carlson, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie Taylor Greene in a late Friday night rant, weeks after they met up and teased that a “movement” was brewing.

“Tucker Carlson just met with Lightweight “Former” Congressman, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie “Traitor” Greene, LOSERS ALL!” Trump’s nearly 300-word diatribe began.

It was not immediately clear which meeting the president was referring to. On Aug. 1, Greene posted an image on X showing her smiling alongside Carlson, who was seated at the head of the table, as well as Massie and former counterterrorism official Joe Kent.

“We said no more foreign wars, and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But he’s betrayed us all,” Greene wrote at the time. “Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center. The movement has begun.”

Three weeks later, Trump seemed to have found the time to hit back with an attack on the one-time MAGA officials who fell out of favor over the Iran war, the Epstein files, and his “big, beautiful bill.”

“Tucker’s ‘Views’ have fallen through the floor, and will only get worse. Nobody cares about him any longer in that he has become totally irrelevant, and happens to be, surprisingly, a very Low I.Q. individual,” he wrote. “Tucker is a loser, and always has been!”

“Marjorie Taylor Brown (Green turns to Brown under stress!), a highly neurotic young woman, went from Ultra Conservative to a Liberal ‘Fool,’ all in a matter of weeks, because I refused to return her phone calls — Not because I didn’t like her, just because I had no time,” he went on.

As for Massie, Trump claimed that the Kentucky representative “turned out to be a failed politician, and a real JERK. He thought it was really wonderful to vote, ‘NO,’ on everything, no matter how good, strong, or proper the Legislation would be.”

“What a team this would be, THREE LOSERS, and a pocketful of change!” Trump continued. “The only chance they have is to join the Radical Left Dumocrats, and try breaking into the Primary System. To all of them I say, PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”

Trump’s meltdown came as Axios reported that Vice President JD Vance attended a fundraiser on Wednesday at the Southampton, New York home of Omeed Malik, the president of 1789 Capital. The “anti-woke” firm is a major investor in Carlson’s media company.

The Truth Social post left Greene and Massie grasping for answers on why Trump decided to come after them now.

“I wonder if it was being called a traitor at his own rally yesterday that caused him to dictate his lies and insult-laden attack on Tucker, Thomas, and I, while he flew back on the plane. It’s also the bad polling that I’m sure he’s seen by now,” Greene shot back, likely referring to a Trump heckler who was thrown out of a South Carolina rally on Friday.

“President Trump’s demeanor, name-calling, absurd and reckless rhetoric is unbecoming of the office of the president, is a bad example of leadership, and is hurting America’s reputation and place in the world,” she continued. “At this point, he’s no different than an internet troll or one of the many millions of bots that say awful horrible things.”

Massie, meanwhile, mused that Trump was lashing out at them because his policies are failing.

“Trump’s getting roasted today for his disastrous beef policy, the debt hit $40 trillion because of his ‘big beautiful bill,’ he stepped-in-it in Iran, and he’s weeks away from failing his mid-terms in November. He posted this because we are the three he should have listened to,” he wrote on X.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-erupts-at-maga-foes-tucker-carlson-thomas-massie-and-marjorie-taylor-greene-in-truth-social-post/?

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Inside Trump's remake of the White House Rose Garden. First a stone patio, then statues

Instead of adding new roses, President Donald Trump’s White House Rose Garden is growing statues. Read More.   What to know about Trump's 50% tariffs on Canadian goods that just went into effect After trade negotiations crumbled at the eleventh hour, U.S. President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on scores of Canadian imports kicked in Saturday. Read More.   Trump's trade war with Canada: A timeline of how we got here President Donald Trump's barrage of tariffs — and threats of even more — has strained the United States' longstanding relationship with Canada. Read More.   Trump wants the midterms to be about himself. That may not help in a rare Nebraska swing district “Do they still like Trump in Nebraska? I think so,” the president said during a recent event in Washington. Read More.

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🏎️ It's Race Day!

Race car driver Josef Newgarden taking a practice run past the U.S. Capitol yesterday. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP Even for well-traveled IndyCar drivers, today's Freedom 250 Grand Prix track with the U.S. Capitol in the background is awe-inspiring. "We get to race at a lot of cool cities, but this one is by far the best that we've ever had," IndyCar driver Kyle Kirkwood told AP. "Going by the Capitol building, the views here, all the architecture of all the buildings around here, all the museums, it's stuff that you dream of." The 1.7-mile track includes a lengthy straightaway down Pennsylvania Avenue and another across the National Mall. The Air & Space Museum and National Gallery of Art are both inside the course's perimeter, with a fan zone in between. Kids walking through the Freedom 250 Grand Prix fan zone yesterday. Photo: Allison Robbert/AP The Freedom 250 race begins at 1:10 p.m. ET and stretches 250 miles (147 laps) — the second-longest street race in IndyCar history. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are expected to take an honorary lap in the Beast before the 25 drivers zoom through Washington's streets in a 180-mph blur. Get the latest.

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US and Canada plunge deeper into a trade war After trade negotiations crumbled at the eleventh hour, U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on scores of Canadian imports kicked in Saturday. The new levies are expected to affect about 5% of Canada’s annual exports to the U.S., roughly $20 billion in goods. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney quickly promised Saturday that his government would roll out “dollar for dollar” retaliatory measures starting Sept. 8. Experts warn steeper tariffs raise costs for businesses and almost always trickle down to households in the form of higher prices. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Iran’s president says US memorandum is best path out of stalled war Federal judge vacates Trump policy that suspended processing of immigration visas from 75 countries Supreme Court’s chief justice allows work on Trump’s $400M White House ballroom to continue for now Arizona AG declines to charge Gov. Katie Hobbs over pay-to-play allegations Why the bond market is flexing its muscles, and why everyone needs to care Trump announces plan to lower beef prices, but ranchers and some Republicans are already balking MAHA activists urge Trump against promoting coal to power energy-hungry AI data centers Pentagon dismisses Stars and Stripes leadership after editor, reporter oppose military interference Federal officials announce water cuts as Colorado River supplies continue to plunge TikTok reaches $400 million settlement with US Justice Department over children’s privacy FACT FOCUS: Census Bureau report does not prove Trump’s claim about noncitizen voting in 2020 WATCH: Trump transforms White House Rose Garden with historical statues

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Trade Talks Collapse

The trade dispute between the US and Canada escalated sharply over the weekend after last-minute negotiations ended without agreement. A raft of US tariffs on Canadian goods kicked in Friday at midnight, while Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada would apply dollar-for-dollar tariffs going into effect Sept. 8.    The new US tariffs apply a 50% levy to about $20B in Canadian imports, or roughly 5% of the goods exported to the US. Items range from alcohol to agricultural products but exclude energy-related goods (full schedule in the first three links here). Carney said the retaliatory tariffs would be equal in monetary value, with specific items listed in the coming days. Both countries and Mexico signed a free-trade agreement replacing NAFTA during President Donald Trump’s first term. Trump declined a 16-year extension in July, switching to an annual review (see an analysis of issues).  Looking for a 101 on tariffs? Get an overview here.

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💰 Bessent: "Economic D-Day" against Iran

President Trump, who has said he views the Strait of Hormuz "as an American territory," posted this image on Truth Social over the weekend. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who'll hold a news conference today to detail even stronger U.S. sanctions against Iran, writes in a Financial Times op-ed posted yesterday: "At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary." Bessent, who taught economic history at Yale, compared the "full weight of American resolve" against Iran to decisions by FDR, Churchill and the Allied powers during World War II. He warned other countries against "appeasement of the regime." The Treasury secretary argues that U.S. sanctions are working: "Inflation has rarely been higher." Reuters reported last week: "Offers of Iranian crude to Chinese buyers have declined and prices have jumped … as the U.S. blockade has cut Tehran's shipments." Full op-ed (gift link).

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He was waiting for his son to return from the USS Lincoln. Then Border Patrol arrested him When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son Joshua Aviles was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy — a vessel that set a U.S. military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among soldiers. Read more.

What to know: Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic, according to his wife, Argelia Aviles. She said her husband, a handyman in Key West, Florida, has a permit to work in the United States. Originally from Nicaragua, he has lived in the U.S. for 19 years.   The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Aviles on Saturday in Key West and that he will remain in ICE custody while the government seeks to deport him. “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” the department said Sunday.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Takeaways from AP’s review of military families detained under Trump’s immigration crackdown

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Drug prices have declined sharply, and Trump is taking credit. The reason behind the drop is complex President Donald Trump has been taking credit for new federal data that shows U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.8% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago, the steepest year-over-year drop since 1963. Read more.

Why this matters: The plunging prices, the White House said, resulted from the Republican president’s “most favored nation” drug deals with pharmaceutical firms and the TrumpRx website. The real picture is more complicated, said drug pricing experts, who noted that other factors, including a law from Democratic President Joe Biden’s time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures. Also at play, they said, are generic and biosimilar products that have come onto the market, offering competition that drives down the price of expensive brand-name and biologic drugs.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Carney warned about economic coercion. Now Trump is testing the Canadian prime minister Trump wants the midterms to be about himself. That may not help in a rare Nebraska swing district Jared Kushner meets with Democratic leader Jeffries with House control at stake in November Pete Buttigieg returns to South Carolina as he weighs another White House run

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• Trump threatened on Monday to impose a 50% tariff on Canadian automobiles, car parts and steel starting next year as the trade rift with Ottawa continued to deepen. The announcement comes after trade talks between the otherwise reliable trading partners collapsed last week. Long-planned U.S. tariffs on various Canadian goods went into effect after the talks broke off, and Canada has vowed to retaliate.

🇮🇷 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast: The U.S. will impose punishing sanctions on countries and entities that do business with Iran — an attempt to bring the country to heel absent renewed military strikes. More from Barak Ravid.

📰 An independent arbitrator ruled that former Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah was wrongfully terminated last year over social posts tied to the death of Charlie Kirk, and ordered her reinstated with back pay and lost benefits. More from Sara Fischer

🇨🇦 President Trump threatened to hit imported cars, trucks, automobile parts and steel from Canada with 50% tariffs starting on Jan. 1. He wrote on Truth Social: "Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years. Their ridiculously high tariffs on our Farmers and farm products has made life impossible for these great American Patriots, and has long created a 60 Billion Dollar Deficit between our two Countries." Go deeper.

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Murdoch Paper Savages Trump for Making His ‘Dumbest’ Plan Even Dumber

The Wall Street Journal says the president’s latest move makes no “economic or political sense.”

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal blasted Donald Trump for reigniting a trade war with Canada just weeks away from the midterms.

The newspaper’s editorial board savaged the 80-year-old president for announcing a sequel to his “dumbest” tariff plans against a close ally and neighbor by imposing 50 percent import levies on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend.

In turn, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the country is being “attacked” by Trump and vowed to match the U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar.”

The Journal’s editorial board questioned why Trump has decided to escalate a tariff war with Canada when it makes no “economic or political sense” and during a particularly crucial period for the president and the GOP.

“President Trump took exception last year when we called his tariffs against Canada and Mexico the dumbest trade war in history,” the board wrote.

“It got dumber this weekend as Mr. Trump escalated with another round of border taxes on Canadian imports, a mere 10 weeks before midterm elections.”

Trump’s tariff plans against Canada came into effect on Saturday after talks between the two countries to stop the potentially devastating levies broke down.The tariffs target a long list of Canadian exports, including hockey sticks, agricultural products, wine, and cement. The tariffs will be paid by companies importing those goods into the U.S., with the cost eventually passed on to consumers.

Trump’s tariffs were imposed under a long-dormant law, Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allows a president to set tariffs against countries that discriminate against “commerce of the United States, directly or indirectly.” Trump is the first U.S. president to use the Depression-era law to impose tariffs.

Carney warned that the Canadian government would impose retaliatory measures against the U.S. starting Sept. 8. The Journal’s board noted that both sides could “still walk back from the ledge,” but Trump’s escalation could “make this harder for Mr. Carney politically since Canadians don’t like being bullied by Washington.”

A fresh trade war, with the cost trickling down to U.S. consumers, could further exacerbate the financial hardships of tens of millions of Americans already suffering in a cost-of-living crisis.

The president has been recording dire approval ratings on the economy throughout his second term, as voters turn on Trump over his original tariff plans and the war in Iran, which has sent gas prices soaring. Backlash to Trump’s handling of the economy could doom Republicans in November’s midterm elections, where the GOP could lose control of both the House and the Senate.

“Mr. Trump’s latest round of border taxes will hit an array of consumer goods, construction materials and manufacturing components. Republicans are already getting pounded on the campaign trail over his tariffs and inflation,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote.

“One reason for Mr. Trump’s frigid approval rating is that voters believe Mr. Trump is waging blunderbuss wars without a strategy, and on trade they’re right.”

In response, White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast: “American workers, businesses, and farmers have, for decades, been undermined by unfair Canadian trade practices.

“Canada tore up an incredibly generous and fair trade deal with the Trump administration to instead demand unrestricted access to the American economy while boxing American exports out of its market. President Trump will never waver from putting Americans and America First.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/murdoch-paper-savages-trump-for-making-his-dumbest-plan-even-dumber/?

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US set for largest mass visa revocation in history targeting up to 200,000 foreigners, officials say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-rubio-visas-revoke-e9c14fdfd0ada439d2b9d8694e678a46?

Deportees who refused to exit a US flight in Liberia are sent to Equatorial Guinea

Six people who were deported by the United States to Liberia last week resisted getting off the plane and instead were sent to Equatorial Guinea, another ‌African nation that signed a third-country deportation agreement with the Trump administration, a person on the plane and a lawyer in contact with the six said Monday. Read More.

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Insufficient Data

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One of the few issues that unites voters and politicians of both parties right now is data centers. Three-quarters of Americans would oppose a data center being built near where they live, according to a new poll released last week by Heatmap Pro and Embold Research. The two leading lights of the left, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, have sponsored a bill in Congress to create a temporary moratorium on new centers. They have an unlikely ally in archconservative Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, who said yesterday on ABC’s This Week that data-center companies “basically dug their own grave” and “got the backlash they deserve.”

Standing against this consensus is Donald Trump. The president remains a big booster of data centers. “Communities that don’t take a data center—they’re making a mistake,” he said Thursday during an interview with his on-again, off-again lackey Michael Cohen. “Data centers throw off tremendous amounts of jobs and money.”

This was no one-off. Trump had made several similar comments recently. “If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it, because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous,” Trump said last week—although he allowed that the sector could use “a little public-relations help.”

This puts Trump, the most successful demagogue in American political history, in the unusual position of misreading, and opposing, a populist groundswell. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump took many stands that were unpopular among establishment politicians. Some of these positions put him at odds not only with Democrats but also with most Republican elected officials. Trump broke with Republicans in claiming that he would protect social-welfare programs such as Medicare and Social Security, and he broke a bipartisan consensus by attacking free-trade agreements and promising protectionism. On these matters (as well as on his willingness to encourage and participate in gutter racism), Trump demonstrated that a big constituency existed for views that other politicians had deemed electoral liabilities.

Data centers’ political arc has been different. Initially, many officials seemed to back the centers, following exactly Trump’s logic: They offered jobs and tax benefits. But as public opinion turned—driven by a mix of backlash to AI in general, environmental concerns, worries about energy prices, and old-fashioned NIMBYism—politicians changed their view as well.

Why has Trump missed the shift? Presumably one reason is that he is surrounded by advisers and tech executives such as David Sacks and Larry Ellison, who are major boosters of and players in the industry. Tech companies invested heavily in Trump at the start of his second administration, lavishing him with gifts, including a gold-plated bauble and donations to projects such as his inauguration and his ballroom, and Trump has reciprocated by taking policy stances that benefit them. Trump may also be personally profiting from the AI boom; his financial disclosures show he’s become more of a tech investor.

Trump has always tended to adopt the latest thing he’s heard, no matter what it is. He has been willing to alienate corporate interests in the past—when he saw some political upside. But he is not hearing from voters who might alert him to how unpopular data centers are. Trump’s rallies and speeches once created a feedback loop in which he conveyed his message to voters and—crucially—they conveyed their thoughts to him. Now, as his energy sinks, his travel schedule gets lighter, and security makes events more challenging, Trump is getting out less.

Though his stump speeches dragged on for hours, Trump was carefully attuned to audience attention and what did and didn’t work. “You know, if it gets a little boring, if I see people starting to sort of, maybe thinking about leaving, I can sort of tell the audience, I just say, ‘We will build the wall!’ and they go nuts,” he told The New York Times in 2016. I think often about a speech Trump delivered in July 2022. It was billed as the launch of a new policy agenda, but as he read it, both Trump and his audience seemed bored. Then he ad-libbed a riff about trans athletes and the crowd came alive. Trump picked up on the shift and emphasized it; trans issues would become a central talking point for his 2024 campaign.

The president has always been susceptible to fake news and bad at filtering information, but rallies provided a gut check about his base, if not about the broader national reality. Now Trump isn’t even receiving that kind of information. One of his major conduits for information is Natalie Harp, a sycophantic aide who isn’t interested in exposing Trump to criticism. He could read public-opinion data, but as his own approval sinks, he has taken to saying (and may well believe) that polls are fake.

As his world shrinks, Trump’s populist touch has faded. Despite being elected twice on an antiwar platform, he’s launched attacks on Venezuela and Iran. As the Iran war has gotten bogged down, he’s been incapable of reading the public mood. He has dismissed voter frustration over rising fuel costs, saying “I don’t even think about” gas; he previously called affordability a “hoax.” In response to reports that American sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were struggling with a long deployment, Trump said they hadn’t been deployed “nearly long enough.” And the collapse of trade talks with Canada on Friday threaten Republican prospects in border states including Michigan and Ohio.

Each of these cases represents a growing gap between Trump and his base, but none is as ironic as Trump’s stance on data centers. The AI facilities store terabytes of data, but the president can’t get access to the information about them that he needs.

Related:

• The bubble-wrapped president
• Trump’s 2024 soft launch (From 2022)